Books: Whatcha readin lately?

Subject: RE: Books: Whatcha readin lately?
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 27 Jul 18 - 05:26 AM

Re-reading all Terry Pratchett's work. Currently on 'The Fifth Elephant'. Brilliant stuff and even better with multiple re-reads.

DtG

Subject: RE: Books: Whatcha readin lately?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 26 Jul 18 - 05:21 PM

If Shane had written that book it would be called "Two Beers Before the Mast". Admittedly, that's not too many beers. He'd have been desperate to make landfall as soon as possible.

Subject: RE: Books: Whatcha readin lately?
From: radriano
Date: 26 Jul 18 - 04:29 PM

I'm going through "Two Years Before the Mast" again. Great read.

I recently got an audio-book compilation of early science fiction short stories called X-1 that's quite enjoyable.

Subject: RE: Books: Whatcha readin lately?
From: fat B****rd
Date: 25 Jul 18 - 05:58 PM

"Three Chords for Beauty's Sake" about Artie Shaw by Tom Nolan. Eee!, these jazzers are a funny lot.

Subject: RE: Books: Whatcha readin lately?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 25 Jul 18 - 03:27 PM

Oh, well, it's back to re-reading Dostoevksy, I guess. I should've known better than to trust Shane's literary judgement.

Subject: RE: Books: Whatcha readin lately?
From: Donuel
Date: 25 Jul 18 - 02:37 PM

Anything recent by Dr. Turok
He learned a valuable lesson in his overly technical technique to find gravity waves and failed. Now he is back on Albert's side of not playing dice with the universe and like Dirac seeks the simplest explanation that makes the universe the simplest thing in the universe.

Subject: RE: Books: Whatcha readin lately?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 25 Jul 18 - 12:58 PM

On Shane's advice I purchased a slim little hardbound volume on Amazon, entitled "How to Seduce a Sudbury Skank".

It had only 10 pages of text, following the title page, the copyright page, the acknowledgements, the author's foreword, the dedication, the quotation from Ed Skint, and the table of contents.

On the first page of text it said: Offer her some money.

On the second page: Offer her some weed.

On the third page: Offer her a beer.

And so on....

I think I've been ripped off here.

Subject: RE: Books: Whatcha readin lately?
From: theleveller
Date: 25 Jul 18 - 11:58 AM

Just finished John Rees's excellent new book, The Leveller Revolution and almost finished Dorothy L Sayers's Nine Tailors.

Subject: RE: Books: Whatcha readin lately?
From: ChanteyLass
Date: 24 Jul 18 - 07:50 PM

I just started reading The Last Days of Dogtown, historical fiction set on Cape Ann in Massachusetts, by Anita Diamant. It caught my interest right away. It's another book club choice.

Subject: RE: Books: Whatcha readin lately?
From: ChanteyLass
Date: 19 Jul 18 - 06:44 PM

Tom Clancy's The Hunt for Red October. I'm almost done and the last several pages remind me of Star Trek episodes--orders on the bridge, brief discussions of strategy, evasive maneuvers, etc.

This is not a book our book club would usually choose, but we have a new member--our one and only male. Until now, men have come to one meeting and not returned. I'd like more of them to come regularly. It would widen our scope. This man has come regularly for a few months and suggested this book each time. I figured it was time to honor his choice and make it ours, and happily the other members agreed.

This man is recently retired and has said he is trying to figure out how to use his time. He has begun showing up at other things we local retired folks do and doesn't seem to be intimidated by the large majority of women who show up, too. I say good for him.

Subject: RE: Books: Whatcha readin lately?
From: EBarnacle
Date: 19 Jul 18 - 06:07 PM

I was at the American Federation of Teachers convention last weekend. One of the presenters was MacLean, who wrote "America in Chains." It is about the history od James Buchanan and the Koch's rise to power by subverting our democratic institutions. Finished it on the way home from Pittsburgh. Although she is an academic, with all that that implies, she is quite readable--and scary.

Almost done with Caro's tetralogy "The years of Lyndon Johnson." It's heavy going but necessary and fascinating. He is supposedly working on volume 5, about the second term presidency and retirement of LBJ. It's a race with mortality, as he is not well.

Meanwhile, McMaster's book, "Dereliction of Duty" is the next heavy on my reading list.

I am currently working up a play about LBJ in his own words [and Lord, he has a lot of words]. The major task will be to bring it down to two hours plus or minus. Among the items on my table are LBJ's White House Tapes and newspaper reports of his speeches. Three or four more years more to finish this project.

Subject: RE: Books: Whatcha readin lately?
From: Senoufou
Date: 18 Jul 18 - 04:25 AM

I'm reading 'What Women Want' by Susan Maushart.

I very much enjoyed her previous book 'Wifework'. She's an extremely articulate and funny feminist, and has studied the lives of modern women in great detail.

'Wifework' explored the inequalities married/partnered women face in housework and childcare while pursuing careers, in comparison to the input of their menfolk.

'What Women Want' deals with the next step; what 'Happiness' actually means for women, and what choices they want to be free to make regarding their careers, motherhood and domestic lives.

Subject: RE: Books: Whatcha readin lately?
From: keberoxu
Date: 17 Jul 18 - 09:40 PM

Just looked at a Simenon mystery,
but it is one without Maigret in the cast.
An examination of the bourgeouisie (whew! haven't had to spell THAT in some time)
at its most suffocating.

A little more bracing was the latter half (separate volume) of
The Wheel of Fortune, in which author Susan Howatch
takes those Plantagenets -- Edward, John, Richard, two Henrys --
and makes of them a Welsh dynasty
in the early twentieth century, wars and all.
And what she does with Richard II -- whee!
She let rip with that fella.

Subject: RE: Books: Whatcha readin lately?
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 26 Jun 15 - 10:32 AM

"What Stands in a Storm" by Karen Cross. A book you can't put down about the tornado outbreak in Alabama and Mississippi in April, 2011.

"The Making of a Land - The Geology of Norway" by I. B. Ramberg and I. Bryhni. This book is educational, and it's also a work of art.

We are visiting Norway soon, and we find the book very helpful.

I'm going to look for "Norwegian detective writer Ann Holt."

Subject: RE: Books: Whatcha readin lately?
From: EBarnacle
Date: 25 Jun 15 - 11:10 PM

If you read the "Dragon Tattoo" series read them in order. The beginnings don't make sense otherwise.

There is a biology [two book series] by Jones about The Plantagenets and The Tudors. Both quite readable.

Try to find Shakespeare of London, long out of print but good readable research.

Studying Merchant of Venice as I have a part in a local production. It's amazing how many puns and zingers he built into his writing.

Currently 2/3 of the way through volume 2 of Shelby Foote's Civil War trilogy.   Quite readable.

A friend referred me to Macomber's series of nautical adventures. Currently waiting for the last 5 books to arrive. {Pineapple Press]

Studying Songs of the Sea Kings as we are working up a production for Hokule'a's visit next year during her 'round the world voyage.

It is such a pleasure to study because you want to.

PS, Fagels' translations of the various classics are really worth the read.

Subject: RE: Books: Whatcha readin lately?
From: Spleen Cringe
Date: 25 Jun 15 - 04:13 PM

Norwegian detective writer Ann Holt. Her main character, Hanne Wilhelmsen, is very likeable and there's a good supporting cast. Well paced, well plotted and not quite as dark as some of the Scandicrime doing the rounds...

Subject: RE: Books: Whatcha readin lately?
From: Bat Goddess
Date: 25 Jun 15 - 09:16 AM

Let's see... Just finished J. Dennis Robinson's "Mystery On the Isles of Shoals" about the 1874 Smuttynose murders. And I'm on the homestretch on "Lud-in-the-Mist" by Hope Mirrlees which ClaireBear sent to me years ago and then it got lost in the pile of "new" books. I'm also reading "Patrick Leigh Fermor, An Adventure". Oh, and the Penguin Aesop's Fables in my purse for the odd moment.

Finished "Healing After Loss" which was read one day at a time.

I finally got around (and then devoured the three volumes) to reading Steig Larrson's "Girl With the Dragon Tattoo" and the two follow ups. Micca raved about them ten years ago -- why did I wait so long? (Simple answer: too many books; not enough time.)

I've also been off on a Clarissa Dickson Wright kick that I need to get back to. Was devastated to find she died last year.

Linn

Subject: RE: Books: Whatcha readin lately?
From: Joe_F
Date: 24 Jun 15 - 08:55 PM

Recently I have been browsing extensively in H. L. Mencken's New Dictionary of Quotations.

Subject: RE: Books: Whatcha readin lately?
From: GUEST,HiLo
Date: 24 Jun 15 - 09:48 AM

I am in a poetry mode of late. Have been reading Michael Hartnett and Charles Causley. Oh, I do love Charles Causley. Also more Yeats and a lot of W. H. Auden.
I have reread recently "The Waves" by Virginia Wolf. Beautiful writing. Am also dipping into her Diaries.
Whilst trying to find some books for the Charity shop, I came across "Twenty Years A Growing" by Maurice O' Sullivan. What a truly lovely book, especially if you wish to look back on a lost way of Life in Ireland.
I am also reading The last few of the Brunetti mysteries by Donna Leone, I love them. The descriptions of food always make me hungry !
Am reading "The Lady In Gold", non-fiction, about the painting by Klimpt that stolen from a Jewish Family in Austria during the war. It is about one womans fight to get the painting restored to the rightful owner.
Great thread, Lots of good suggestions.

Subject: RE: Books: Whatcha readin lately?
From: GUEST,Here cookie cookie!!! Where are you?
Date: 24 Jun 15 - 03:47 AM

I had been reading Mudcat.

But some rather dim moderator has been performing the internet equivalent of book burning lately so anything of interest to people living in more sophisticated societies gets deleted for not supporting dubious far right notions.

Oh, and I have been reading some autobiographies lately. Narcissist doesn't even begin to cover some of it. Rather than enriching your take on some people, I find I have a less favourable view now.

The honourable exception in the last few weeks being the excellent Michael Palin diaries.

Subject: RE: Books: Whatcha readin lately?
From: GUEST,Manuel
Date: 23 Jun 15 - 11:00 PM

Mary Mccarthy's "The Group" may not be a Penguin Classic but I have enjoyed every minute spent with it so far.

Subject: RE: Books: Whatcha readin lately?
From: Jack Campin
Date: 23 Jun 15 - 07:19 PM

As I work in a charity second-hand bookshop I get to flip through all kinds of deeply strange books.

Oddest one lately: Leilah Wendell, "The Book of Azrael". I didn't read all of it, but enough to send me to Google to find out what the heck the author was up to. The YouTube interview is... not your typical author sales pitch.

It sold in a couple of days. The very quiet young woman who bought it looked almost human.

We had one regular customer who is now in jail for murder (David Gilroy) and a large donation of books that belonged to a man who is now out of jail for a dramatic attempted multiple murder (Paul Agutter). If you want an Amazon-like recommendation: Agutter's thing was Penguin Classics, Gilroy bought rather nondescript contemporary fiction like Sebastian Faulks.

We also recently sold a copy of Tolkien's "The Two Towers" that had been in the patients' library at Broadmoor. Sadly, no annotations by Ian Brady or Peter Sutcliffe.

Subject: RE: Books: Whatcha readin lately?
From: fat B****rd
Date: 23 Jun 15 - 04:42 PM

Re-reading Colin Wilson murder books; The Killer, Schoolgirl Murder etc. Sex and Philosophy...phew!

Subject: RE: Books: Whatcha readin lately?
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 23 Jun 15 - 03:04 PM

Half way through the latest Shardlake, 'Lamentation - excellent.
More to the point, what I am not reading is part three of the 'Cicero' trilogy by Robert Harris, as the bastard hasn't written it still...
Never thought I'd be turned on by a Roman Senator - life's full of surprises!!
Jim Carroll

Subject: RE: Books: Whatcha readin lately?
From: GUEST,Uncle_DaveO
Date: 23 Jun 15 - 12:37 PM

I recently read a "literary detective story", a book called The Millionaire and the Bard, by Andrea E. Mays. It's about the career, rising from a low level clerk to a Captain of Industry, of a man named Henry Folger, becoming a very top level executive of Standard Oil. Folger and his wife were obsessed with Shakespeare, and especially with the First Folio. The publication of which in 1623, seven years after Shakespeare's death, saved for the world about eighteen of the great man's plays, which had never before been published and but for the First Folio would have been lost, along with the best versions of all his other plays.

    Folger and his equally dedicated and knowledgeable wife, over an unrelenting search of maybe 40 years, gathered a collection including about (as best I recall) 79 copies of the F.F. (about 30% of the known surviving copies in the world), and many others of the later Folios and the Quartos and a great quantity of other Shakespeariana.

    The Folgers' huge collection of plays, playbills, paintings, etc., resides in the Folger Shakespeare Library, next to the Smithsonian Institution in Washington DC. It's where any serious Shakespeare Scholar really has to go to study the early publications of the plays, critical reviews, playbills, and many later books dealing with them and Shakespeare himself.

    Now that I've told you too much and not enough, my description might sound to you like a dry book, but I didn't find it so. In addition, it put me onto another fascinating book dealing with Shakespeare, which I'll address in another post.

Dave Oesterreich

Subject: RE: Books: Whatcha readin lately?
From: IamNoMan
Date: 18 Nov 14 - 09:04 PM

"Defender of the Innocent" Lawrence Block
"The Path Between The Seas" David McCullough
"The Big U" Neil Stephenson
"Railsea" China Mieville

Subject: RE: Books: Whatcha readin lately?
From: lefthanded guitar
Date: 18 Nov 14 - 03:00 PM

I've always loved mysteries, but I have found that too many of the contemporary writers create books that are either sheer fluff or graphic atrocities. So I recently started (re) reading Agatha Christie - just finished A Pocket Full of Rye. For her clear and clean writing style, her ability to keep the reader just poised but never sure of the outcome, her deep and instinctive understanding of human nature,her sly humor, brilliant pacing, and timeless stories- imho there is NO better mystery writer than Agatha. So satisfied!

Subject: RE: Books: Whatcha readin lately?
From: Wesley S
Date: 18 Nov 14 - 08:57 AM

Pat Conroy's "South of Broad".

And I'm tempted to pick up the newest Stephen King. He's a lot like Bob Dylan to me. All of his stuff is better than average but sometimes he gets on a roll { like now } and puts out several good ones in a row.

Subject: RE: Books: Whatcha readin lately?
From: GUEST, topsie
Date: 17 Nov 14 - 03:31 PM

Re-re-reading Brendon Chase by BB.

One of the best ever books for 'children'/young adults/well, any age, really.

Subject: RE: Books: Whatcha readin lately?
From: GUEST,Claire M
Date: 17 Nov 14 - 02:39 PM

Hiya! Re King – used to love him; saw Misery live. Then saw Sleepwalkers. Spent whole film crying for the poor cats; went right off him.

1 of Doreen Virtue's books re how the angels can help you in every area of your life made a big impression; DV actually makes sense when you sift through the psycho-babble/ Angelic language. Highlighted all over, written all over. Can't remember the exact quote, but it said something like how you're not surrounded by sharks; you're surrounded by angel-fish, how you can be guided to another who is like you – that's what this place is for!

I was, & continue to be, v pleased to find there is an aspiring writer out there as odd as me – she even looks like me before I bid goodbye to my long hair. Gave me a bit of a jolt.

Reading last in Twis**** I mean TwiLIGHT series. I thought i'd love it, but I find Bella nothingy & Edward needy & creepy. I can see why I never bothered w/ it before.

@ my meet-up group, we bring books in/rec them to others – too many books! they're breeding.

Subject: RE: BS: Whatcha readin lately?
From: Bill D
Date: 16 Nov 14 - 09:21 PM

one more try

<i>we do italics with code that looks like this </i>

Subject: RE: BS: Whatcha readin lately?
From: Bill D
Date: 16 Nov 14 - 09:17 PM

hmmm... that used to work. I haven't used that program in years.

Subject: RE: BS: Whatcha readin lately?
From: Bill D
Date: 16 Nov 14 - 09:13 PM

we do italics with code that looks like this


<font color=Black>

&lt;i&gt;we do italics with code that looks like this &lt;/i&gt;<br>

</font>

Subject: RE: BS: Whatcha readin lately?
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 16 Nov 14 - 05:56 AM

Likewise, why does one do that? What does it signify?

Subject: RE: BS: Whatcha readin lately?
From: Musket
Date: 16 Nov 14 - 05:51 AM

Well booger me, so it does..

But how does one do this? 😎

Subject: RE: BS: Whatcha readin lately?
From: GUEST, topsie
Date: 16 Nov 14 - 04:12 AM

Perhaps some members need an explanation of "angle brackets" - they are < and >.

Subject: RE: BS: Whatcha readin lately?
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 16 Nov 14 - 03:50 AM

Dani: One italicises by using letter i in angle brackets before bit to be italicised, and then closing with /i also in angle brackets: thus --

italics

One can similarly achieve 'bold' with letter b used similarly, &c.

≈M≈

Subject: RE: BS: Whatcha readin lately?
From: GUEST,Manuel
Date: 15 Nov 14 - 09:02 PM

Mrrrzy and Dani, you may wish to note that, according to Wikipedia, Gabriel Garcia Marquez experienced an awful case of writers' block after producing his fourth novel and only emerged from it after reading Juan Rulfo's Pedro Paramo, which I referred to in an earlier posting. Marquez does not seem to have regarded such emergence and such reading as purely coincidental occurrences. His next work was, of course, One Hundred Years of Solitude.

Subject: RE: BS: Whatcha readin lately?
From: GUEST,Dani
Date: 15 Nov 14 - 05:34 PM

What a great thread!

Mrrrzy... YES! 100 Years is such a gorgeous book. And Kendall, The Green Mile broke my heart. I'm not a huge King fan, but I thought that was amazing. Have you seen the movie?

What's on my table?

- The finally-finished "Travels with William Bartram"

- Faulkner's "Light of August" (HATED IT! My first Faulkner, and I'll do no more)

- "It's Your Ship; Management Techniques from the Best Damn Ship in the Navy" by Michael Abrashoff

- "Eating Mindfully", Susan Albers

Need to find some good fiction, or so help me I'll start again at the beginning with Jack Aubrey!

PS: How do y'all do italics here? My normal command-I doesn't seem to work.


Dani

Subject: RE: BS: Whatcha readin lately?
From: GUEST,MikeL2
Date: 15 Nov 14 - 06:05 AM

Hi

Like Musket I read Ian Rankin's Rebus books for bedtime reading.

Just got through all of them and am trying Peter James and his Inspector Grace novels.

Not as gritty as Rankin but probably a little more bloody - especially since his new girlfriend works in a mortuary.

Keep Reading,

Cheers

MikeL2

Subject: RE: BS: Whatcha readin lately?
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 15 Nov 14 - 02:19 AM

Dalrymple, mentioned above, if you don't know his work, I find a useful counterblast to much of the trendy "progressivism" which, given entirely free rein, can bedevil so much of contemporary thought & attitudes. He is a former prison doctor and psychiatrist, with much insight into what makes the criminal mind tick.

Subject: RE: BS: Whatcha readin lately?
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 15 Nov 14 - 02:07 AM

Also Dirty Northern B*st*rds! & Other Tales From The Terraces: The story of Britain's FOOTBALL CHANTS by Tim Marshall. Folklorically interesting!

Subject: RE: BS: Whatcha readin lately?
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 15 Nov 14 - 02:01 AM

Currently reading the memoirs of Rabbi Lionel Blue "Hitch-hiking to Heaven"; of interest to me, because I was at school with him at Hendon County, after he returned to school for sixth form Higher School Cert, after a year out when left school in East End, and won a scholarship from there to Balliol. Bit of drift: but might be of interest that Frank Williams, later the Vicar in "Dad's Army", was in same VIth form -- oddly ecumenical! Not that Frank was a real vicar, but he was a devout practising Christian, regular churchgoer, member of Synod of CofE IIRC. Another drifty coincidence: I was in school play in which Frank played the lead, "The Ghost Train", written 20 years earlier by actor-playwright Arnold Ridley, who was also in "Dad's Army" as the somewhat incontinent elderly Private Godfrey.

Also reading collections of essays by the interesting campaigning & socially-commentating journalist Theodore Dalrymple.

≈M≈

Subject: RE: BS: Whatcha readin lately?
From: michaelr
Date: 14 Nov 14 - 07:17 PM

I'm reading the new Terry Pratchett Discworld novel Raising Steam - delightful! TP is said to have Alzheimer's, but his wit and imagination appear undiminished.

Subject: RE: BS: Whatcha readin lately?
From: GUEST,achmelvich
Date: 14 Nov 14 - 06:18 PM

i read that neil young book. loads about cars and guitars but - 'i don't want to talk about disagreements i have had with steve stills so i won't' i enjoyed the book though . just started re-reading 'ragged trousered philanthropists' but don't expect to get that far with it. enjoyed 'the goldfinch' and ali smith's 'there but for the' - which somehow made me feel nostalgic so i have also been listening to and (re-)reading '70s album covers with my mobile turned off and not wasting time on err.....mudcat etc

Subject: RE: BS: Whatcha readin lately?
From: GUEST
Date: 14 Nov 14 - 05:25 PM

Waging Heavy Peace an autobiography by Neil Young.

Subject: RE: BS: Whatcha readin lately?
From: Mrrzy
Date: 14 Nov 14 - 02:47 PM

LOVE the Moties! What *alien* aliens, not at all Star Trek-like!

(I need a human word!)

Have read Redwall both chronologically and in order of publication. Excellent series.

Subject: RE: BS: Whatcha readin lately?
From: Bill D
Date: 14 Nov 14 - 10:43 AM

I am getting rid...somehow... of most of my 60 year collection of science fiction, but have saved out some special ones to re-read. Recently finished "The Mote in God's Eye" by Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle, and am just starting its sequel, "The Gripping Hand".

Brilliant books in their concept

After that, I 'intend' to work my way thru the entire "Darkover"series by Marion Zimmer Bradley....possibly reading them in chronological order instead of published order.

Subject: RE: BS: Whatcha readin lately?
From: Rapparee
Date: 14 Nov 14 - 10:38 AM

"Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid" is excellent on science and communications and thinking. It is, however, nearly inaccessible reading.

Subject: RE: BS: Whatcha readin lately?
From: Musket
Date: 14 Nov 14 - 09:52 AM

Boris Johnson's Dream of Rome.

Anybody who wonders if he is too thick or too clever as a politician? If he retired and spent all day writing like this, he'd be one of the most respected men in The UK. Instead of a dangerous buffoon.

My bedside Kindle read is working my way through Ian Rankin's Rebus series. Good escapist detective drama.